Setting up a Color Mixing station inside is totally doable.

I set our beloved under the bed storage tub on some towels IN OUR HOUSE. Yes, this is a toddler water activity that I did inside. And you know what? It was fine. He was fine. I was fine. The floors are still fine. I promise.

Inside the tub, I had three empty bowls each corresponding to two cups of colored water: red + yellow, red + blue, blue + yellow.

I sat with my toddler, Sam, for the beginning of this activity and helped guide his pouring of the cups. I didn’t do it for him, I just called out the colors and helped him move down the line so he didn’t dump all six cups into one glass bowl. I just did a small “teaching” moment at each bowl: “Oh red + yellow….. what’s it going to be?” And he’d giggle with joy as the water changed to orange. Like I said, magic!

Once we got through the six colors, then it was a water pouring free for all with these bowls, cups, and I even threw in a few measuring cups just for fun. This part of the activity kept him happily occupied for about 15 minutes. He made a beautiful puke color by the end. And the water stayed in the tub – I promise. There was no disaster, there was no epic spill out.

It was just a very happy toddler pouring his colors. Two thumbs up for this simple activity.